xhost in RHEL4

I needed to illustrate how an operator could send an X application from a server to a workstation in his office (I'm talking here RHEL4 boxes).

Simple, done it loads of times - on the workstation do:

# xhost +server-name

On the server run the application from the command line and direct the output to the display on the workstation:

# xapplication -display workstation-name:0.0

WRONG! It's not that simple on RHEL4! Here, you need to enable TCP first, which is done as part of gdm (graghical desktop manager) configuration.

Run:

# gdmsetup

Select Security tab and notice that the following setting is "checked":

"Always disallow TCP connections to X server (disables all remote connections)"

Take the 'tick' off, restart the GUI (CTRL-ALT-Backspace), and all is well - the method shown above will now work.

I'm still about...

Anybody looking at this blog would be forgiven for thinking that I've given up...
No such luck. I'm still here, except that the project I've been involved in took me into a customer's environment where access to Internet is not easy.

How ironic is that! Internet has clearly become a victim of its own success. I still find it incomprehesible that one might be expected to work without access to e-mail and the web, yet most of large organisations don't seem to provide these facilities to visitor even or even contractors.

Time for 3G or similar?